Project Trig - After 18 Months Away, Is Back In Town! by Mini 360

25 minute(s) of a 461 minute read

Then it got its first coat of Hammerite.










So its looking afa good if I do say so myself! Next up is paint the back and bottom but trying to find an easy way to get it propped up to do so.....

Just realised I need to buy a scuttle before it goes off for welding.....so Minispares order is in place......amazing how one item can transform into a £300 spree "To save on postage costs Mum 'n' Dad!"  

So parts that shall be arriving soooooon hopefully....

• Scuttle
• Headlamp bowl kit x2
• Indicator seals
• Manifold Gasket
• GAZ lowered ride height adjustable dampers (front and rear) THIS THINGS GOING LOWER THAN YOUR GRANNIES NIPS!
• Pot joint gaitor kit x2
• CV Joint gaitor kit x2

And few other fasteners here and there. God I love having a job

Cheeky dugger

So Santa came early today......delivered this little lot.......

Firstly this came......

can you tell what it is yet?

Of course you can! Its a set of lowered ride height adjustable GAZ shocks! Always wanted a set so.....I got them

They are TUV approved and are individually tested to manufacturers specifications at the factory. Even got print outs of the dyno run for each shock in the box. 2 year warranty too.

So alongside these I got a few other bits.........

• Heritage Scuttle panel (excess holes will be welded up for a smoother look)
• Headlamp bowls (including inner rings etc) 
• Front indicator to body seals
• Original specification wiring loom (which shall be modified to accommodate my triple clocks in the centre of my dash which are clock, oil pressure and voltmeter)
• CV joint boot replacement kit (both sides)
• Driveshaft seal kit (both sides)
• Manifold gasket (at the great expense of 88p!) 
• Paddy Hopkirk throttle pedal

The throttle pedal...which shall have a custom twist to it soon to be revealed....

So Im affa happy and that SHOULD be most of the big bits ordered and here now....so its just over to Fastmini1380 now asap to get it welded.......then its off to paint!

More work today been done. Wheeled the car out of the garage to clean up a bit so took a couple pics of that.....not to let you down!

Rear brakes were well and trully seized despite me leaving the handbrake off. So when i had them off to free them up I took the screwdriver and had a dig at my passenger side arch.....



OOPS! Massive hole that explains the often wet floor. How this got past an MOT I have no idea being that close to the shock mount. Thankfully the arches will be getting tubbed anyway for greater clearance and this would be cut out anyway as a result.

But eventually got the car outside











Looking rough as hell but not for long hopefully!

Then I nipped down to Hellfrauds to get a tin of Red engine Enamel due to the Hammerite being crap. Couple of coats so far and will need a few more but the engines looking far better now. Sunshine and high temps are drying it very quickly which means the several coats should all be done today hopefully!





Looks MUCH better now. Just need to touch up the black and silver bits with a fine brush later on.

Progress, progress, progress!

Welding and paint done right dont come cheap is the reason really! Nipped out to Banchory yesterday to get a rough idea of how much it will cost to get the car welded and painted by the same person. Kirkton Bodyshop/Body repair (whatever they are called) are used by most of the VW scene up here and I can se why. The quality of repairs and finish of paint was astounding. Looked like glass and it was just fresh off the gun, not polished. Welding was highly precise and well finished.

They would put the car on a spit to get all the work done but first they would throw it in their oven to get rid of any moisture from the shell. Then weld it al up, put it in the oven again to get rid of any moisture build up in that time then as soon as its out of the oven, wipe down and put in the booth for spraying. I was really impressed by this attention to detail and dedication to get stuff done right first time. He also offered to let me come in as often as I wanted to do some work on the car to reduce my bill and maybe learn a couple of things too.

He was showing us some photos of cars from back in the day he did for customers. One was a Lotus Cortina done 20 years ago. The guy is now only just thinking of taking it back to get some work done. That is the level of finish he gets.

Also he gets work from other 'high quality' bodyshops from the area to get redone so again he must be doing something right!




So thats where the extra money MAY be needed if I decide to go through with it or not. I really want to keep my shell as without it, not only is it illegal....but also it wouldn't be my first car anymore which is the main reason behind the project in the first place. Also with a reshell you really dont know what is underneath the surface as I found with mine so i could end up worse off than I am at the moment!

But ho hum it needs done just need to save and save and save.....

And heres the fruit of todays labour. Needed to see what I still needed just incase I missed anything. So I took everything down from my loft and payed it all out on the patio! Didnt realise how much i had actually bought to be honest.....

So its a Tamiya 1:1 scale kit ready to be assembled! Anyone got any Airfix glue they can spare?















Took forever but looks pretty cool!

Only thing I think I need to get now is inner wings and couple wee fixings here and there. Other than that its ready.

Good to see Berts still stuck in his ways....

anyhoo moving on.....will be on the phone to the painter tomorrow to get it booked in mid to late July.

Before I went for an investigation for welding/paint I took some pics to show what work it needed doing. Just found them on one of my camera cards again so thought I would throw them online. Can see now how bad it really is out in the sunlight. But hey ho cant stop now!

Passengers inner wing.....ordering new one tomorrow....




Engine bay isnt too bad. But then I will be taking the sbframe off before its put on the spit so will then get to see it how it truly is.....




Drivers inner wing.....had thought of patching/repair panelling this but not worth it when theres this much rust/holes.....




Drivers floor......bent, buckled and rusty from poor jacking. Whole pan bought to replace it.




hmmm....yes.....




Under rear seat.....will patch this as its tiny and rear floor is straight.




Will order a rear valence I think....




The only hole in the boot believe it or not!




patch this too but may well be cut out as part of the tubbing process....

Passenger side floor.....




And yet more....




Rear wheel arch inner. Again this will cut out when they are getting tubbed....




Even the shock mounts have rusted in the centre!





So now you can really see what Im working with. Must be mad not going for a new shell but this is Trig. Any other shell wont be the same.

Goodwood FoS photos are done but uploading takes a fair while!

Heres the wings anyway :tongue:



They came in an epic box!



Confused the neighbours anyway

Bought a 1275 for a future install....its going supercharged


Zee piccytures! This was the polo on engine transport duties. Reverse rake fail! Made handling a bit interesting.......



Took a while to get it out. Some weight and not much room in the back of the polo to manoeuvre either. Eventually managed to get it over the boot lip with the aid of some old seatbelts from the scrap mini and out onto a workmate bench. then man handled from there down to the floor. Back breaking!

So this is it. 44,000 miles, unseized 1275cc engine. Affa chuffed!



Its got a 12G9804 head on it (which as far as Im aware is standard?)



And it came with an HIF carb. No idea which carb though so any ideas?





Also got a box of random bits thrown in......got another whole loom but its fit for the bin.



And heres the ever growing collection in the garage




For now the 998 will be going in as its rebuilt and all good. Once cars back on the road I will get to work on the 1275. Going to get twin carbs on it ideally, lumpy cam, some funcy rockers (the ones it has look standard to me, when i compare them to the 998 ones...) etc etc for some poweeeeeer!

And after all the lifting and shifting and also my first day off in 10days Im sitting down with a nice well deserved cold beer.

It will be going two when the time comes for sure :thumb:

Been out in the garage again today. Tidying bits up etc. Engine is now done just need to order some stainless UNC nuts and bolts for the gearbox bolts.

So this is how it stands at the moment And just to remind you what it looked like before I think you will agree its some transformation and a hell of a lot of work!

From this....




To this!







Pretty happy with it. Its not been rebuilt so just painted in situ so not 100% perfect but to the casual glance it will be fine. Rocker cover isn't going to be staying as Im going for a slat topped on which i shall customise to be something much more interesting in the future......

Next up the long wait for welding and paint......

Just in from subframe removal failure. The 4 bolts going into the rear healboard are well and trully holding. Dont really want to grind off the heads as sliding the subframe back and down isnt my ideal method of removal......so Ive drenched them in WD40 and will come back to it another day/evening when im not working.

Pics anyway....





Progress even if it is rather little

Rear subframe oot! In the end I resorted to soaking the bolts in WD40 for a few days then when they still wouldn't shift I took some old 12mm sockets and hammered them onto the bolts. This ensured a tight fit Then too the bar and placed the jack handle over the top of it to make a massive lever and snap go the heads! Then gradually lowering it noticed that the battery cable, handbrake cable and brake line was stopping it from moving any further. Let off the handbrake cable easy enough, battery cable wouldn't move so I cut it off and the same went for the brake line. These were all due to be replaced anyway so no harm done.

Pics to follow....... Now for the 'easy' front subby

The much needed pics.....

Got it dropped but brake line and battery cable caught so cut them off as they needed renewed anyway. Did this single handedly too just lowering it gradually inch or two at a time. Dont see the major dramas folk go on about to be honest.



Then dragged it out. Its totally solid so think its been replaced at some point or just been kept well.....somehow I think it wasnt the later.



Plan is to get it sandblasted clean then get it protected in either paint or powdercoat. Weighing up the options.



Also last night I was in McDonalds and met a guy I know who is giving me a BMW MINI Cooper S JCW GP Supercharger.....for FREE! Means I can get a Vmaxscart fitting kit to go along with it for instant power Needs a couple wee bits changing to get it up and running again but for free I cant complain!

When i get round to it I will be hitting up Vmaxscart for their charger kit (minus charger obviously...) Rebuild 1275 with standard internals put on the charger kit on and you can get a reliable 100bhp from it. Exactly what Im after.  

But back in the present....tomorrow im whipping out the front subframe to get all that repainted/rebuilt. So plenty to be doing! Also booked 2 weeks holidays starting when the car goes for weld/paint. This means I can lend a hand on the hard graft and reduce my bill significantly

The classic case of MPi being reliable but way more expensive to tune :sad:


Was out all day in the garage today (and away back out now to get more done while I have the time to do so...)

So main task was front subframe. Gave up a bit of a fight with one of the mount under the floor. The other was beyond knackered and separated without undoing any bolts....glad I took the frame off now....



Its in amazing condition and has obviously been taken out and painted before as theres two layers of paint. So thats good news! The bulkhead itself is also in good nick with just a light bit of surface rust here and there.

Going to get front and rear frames along with cast suspension parts blasted and powder coated locally so they are currently getting stripped.

Also took of the steering column and rack to give the rack a lick of paint and change the seals.



All the seals/mounts on the subframes are damaged/totally gone so will be fitting some poly replacements all round. £40 for a full car set from FloFlex

So thats todays progress. for starting a project not wanting to go too far with it Ive somehow ended up with a bare shell nut and bolt rebuild......oops!

Spent the day (ok afternoon after a long needed long lie.....) in the garage again. Got the front subframe fully stripped finally. Had left the bolts soaking in WD40 for about a week and they finally released. As you can see its in good enough condition I could quite easily put it back into the car. Buuuut its going to get blasted and powdercoated by PPS in Inverurie along with the rear one and a few other odds and ends removed from the suspension for some durableness.

Almost got the rear subby done but rain stopped play. its too big to fit infront of the car at the mo so its being attacked outside instead. More work to commence on saturday dependant on my hangover......





Next up is finishing the rear subby!

Ordering a set of Flo-Flex poly bushes for the car however they only come in yellow. they do individual sbframe mounts in red so Ive emailed them asking if I can get a whole kit in red instead. No reason why not and hopefully they will be the same decent price!

Paints ordered along with some scratch resistant laquer to go onto it once its been flatted and polished. Keeps the shine and stops wash marks (or stops them to a degree.....) Its going to be kept cleeeeean!  

Week to go........starting at the rear of the car and working our way forwards. The painter just did Ionas arches for her. Quoted more than double what he eventually charged so a top loon in my book! Don't see him doing that with my bill somehow though........ :sad: Would love to pay £2k instead

Spent the day in the garage today. Needed cleared out and organised badly! Had just taken parts off and left them lying around.....not the best idea! So we took the car out of the garage a bit to get cleared up.

So now everything's organised/bagged/tagged/photographed in prep for the rebuild. Parts have been set aside for blasting and powdercoating and others just for me to redo myself. Just a waiting game until it goes to Bunkry a week on Tuesday.

Also marked out the rear arches for tubbing to get this thing shlammed!!! Using a home made tool as a guide (bit of cut wood and a marker....like the one here http://www.turbomini...p=vt&tid=121011) Should give me a good inch extra clearance which was badly needed before the rebuild....







Took out the fuel tank too. Had a good 10 litres in it which is probably worth more than the tank itself these days......... But its stale and filled with crap so its headed to the dump...pipes gave up a fight so just cut them in the end when we got fed up. All the lines are getting replaced front to back anyway. Got a spare tank from my other scrap mini so from the two I can make one, internal filler necked tank




rear brake lines from the subframe are badly corroded so again they are getting replaced front to back.




Tore out the headlining too. Its getting replaced with something a lot more special and luxurious than 20 year old grey vinyl




As you can see subframes are ready to go. Front is in way better condition than the rear but both are getting done for uniformity and piece of mind.




Then left the garage as is....

This is organised. Honestly.....



Parts everywhere, two engines, drawers filled to the brim with bits. Minis, for being so small, have far too many parts.

Made up a very quick list of everything Im needing to get. This is just a rough list with more to add later when i remember other stuff......most will be new parts for lines, brakes etc but other stuff will be looking for second hand